Positioning of Radiator?

[Black Panther]

So I have an NZXT H710i case and my radiator is positioned at the very top, right above 3 exhaust fans.

My friend bought an identical case but insists on positioning the radiator at the front, behind 3 intake fans.

I'm telling him that way he's blowing warm (even mildly hot during gaming) air on his new GPU and all inside his tower before being exhausted out of the top fans and rear fan.
I'm telling him putting it on top is much better so that the warm radiator air gets immediately pushed outside of the tower instead.

However, he insists his positioning is better.

Below is a photo he sent me, showing how he installed the radiator.

What do you think about this?

I was planning to show him this thread (if I'm right) in order to help him.

 

[GerKNG]

i had a H710 too.
front mounted radiators with the already restricted airflow is a bad idea.
everything heats up and the liquid temperature from the AIO is barely 2°C cooler.
top mounted is a lot better.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I'd usually use the easiest to clean position which is the front
Air goes through the front and out the back so not sure why it would matter that hot air passes through make it easier by removing the extra pci-e covers

But then again I have rads on top and front and both are intakes lol
Bottom line
Cases come with filters on the front and top so already designed for Intake so why change it or remove a filter so you can switch it to exhaust these are options though so do it the way you want too only o.c.d. people would really bark at one way or another as best

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I have to agree the top mount is better. Easiest is clean should never be a factor on where to position. as @GerKNG said the front has limited airflow, but its still a good idea to throw a fan or two in the front to maintain a better over all airflow.

 

[Black Panther]

I have to agree the top mount is better. Easiest is clean should never be a factor on where to position. as @GerKNG said the front has limited airflow, but its still a good idea to throw a fan or two in the front to maintain a better over all airflow.

The case already has 3 intake fans at the front... you can't fit more fans

(Then it has 3 exhaust fans at the top and another exhaust fan at the back.)

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

The case already has 3 intake fans at the front... you can't fit more fans

(Then it has 3 exhaust fans at the top and another exhaust fan at the back.)

I assumed there were none on the front.

 

[ThrashZone]

I assumed there were none on the front.

Image showed otherwise.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Image showed otherwise.

I didnt expand the image, oh well.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Top mounted is usually ideal but he can try both and see how much of a difference it makes..... I've had multiple cases where it didn't make much of a difference 1-2C and others where it was closer to 5C.

What hardware is your friend using? Going by the photo seems to be Ryzen based so likely won't make any difference.

 

[jesdals]

I would leave it as is - dont think there will be much difference

 

[Black Panther]

I would leave it as is - dont think there will be much difference

Top mounted is usually ideal but he can try both and see how much of a difference it makes..... I've had multiple cases where it didn't make much of a difference 1-2C and others where it was closer to 5C.

What hardware is your friend using? Going by the photo seems to be Ryzen based so likely won't make any difference.

Yes Ryzen. I don't think there will be much difference in CPU temperatures either. But the 3 intake fans would be blowing warm radiator air straight onto his brand new 3080Ti instead of straight out of the case.

 

[Udyr]

Top is OK
Front needs to have the pipes at the bottom (if the pipes are long enough)
Back is for 120/140 MM only and pipes should be below the pump
Bottom is a no-no

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I'd add on most cases the top has more obstructions than the front does

Top usually has a bunch of holes punched in it so it's not completely open and air has to go through them all and a lot of air hit solid spaces between the holes
Front usually doesn't have a lot of stuff

Of course I also cut large square holes where the rads are on top of my cases so no more of that little hole stuff going on, it's just straight through for optimum air flow through the rads.

Looking at your case top and front have these narrow slots for air to go through so not good at all for exhaust barely worth beans for acquit intake
So I would make both Intake no matter where the rad is.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Yes Ryzen. I don't think there will be much difference in CPU temperatures either. But the 3 intake fans would be blowing warm radiator air straight onto his brand new 3080Ti instead of straight out of the case.

As long as he didn't get a terrible model cooling wise it won't matter even a 5950X uses very little power while gaming... The case is likely to be the bottleneck either way trying to push 400w of heat out of it is going to be a bad day unless he cranks the fans. He will likely move air out of the case much faster not trying to push the majority of the hot air through the radiator.

 

[jesdals]

Yes Ryzen. I don't think there will be much difference in CPU temperatures either. But the 3 intake fans would be blowing warm radiator air straight onto his brand new 3080Ti instead of straight out of the case.

I did try it the other way around, but with a hot Radeon 7 at the time it was better to let the radiator heat in than blowing the hot GPU air trough the radiator - but much the same - if your missing air to gpu ad an extra push fan on the bottom of your rad - I use two bottom / top to ad air flow to GPU and over memory. Btw if your friend watch a lot of Jays Two Cents yhats why hees doing the front intake

 

[Black Panther]

As long as he didn't get a terrible model cooling wise it won't matter even a 5950X uses very little power while gaming... The case is likely to be the bottleneck either way trying to push 400w of heat out of it is going to be a bad day unless he cranks the fans. He will likely move air out of the case much faster not trying to push the majority of the hot air through the radiator.

Interesting. Mine is mounted like this but I have an i9 instead of a high-end Ryzen and a 2080Ti 11GB instead of a 3080Ti. (Apologies for the reflections but you can still see the pipes... radiator is not visible because it's on top right above the 3 exhaust fans there.

 

[claes]

Top is probably best for this case given how anemic/restricted it is, but give your friend some credit — that 3080 ti is going to feed hot air to the radiator.

Probably doesn’t matter with Ryzen... It really is a case-by-case situation (harr, harr). There is no universally ideal radiator mounting scheme.

If anything, I’d recommend your friend remove their PCIe brackets — that’ll probably help the GPU more than whatever happens with the radiator.

 

[Black Panther]

So I would make both Intake no matter where the rad is.

Personally I think having 6 fans intake and only 1 rear fan exhaust wouldn't be.... balanced?

 

[ThrashZone]

Personally I think having 6 fans intake and only 1 rear fan exhaust wouldn't be.... balanced?

Hi,
Back of all cases are open.
I said it before and someone else did too
Remove pci-e covers.

 

[Outback Bronze]

I have always found (15+ years) that my loops have been cooler with cold air intake whether they are top or front mounted. You should never be using hot air from inside the case

Think of it like cars. They always have their radiator in the front of the car getting cold air intake no?

 

[toilet pepper]

I prefer the top mounted rad. Air coming out of a radiator can get very hot and you don't want to add that to your other components. I have not owned a processor that is on an AIO that gets too hot to a point that it will thermal throttle or loose perfomance.

A GPU on the other hand would loose clocks if it gets too hot. You might loose some FPS/clockspeed if the GPU gets too hot. So you want to feed it fresh air.

I'm not saying it will happen but at this point I'd rather let my CPU burn down than my GPU.

 

[Udyr]

Hi,
Back of all cases are open.
I said it before and someone else did too
Remove pci-e covers.

Depends on where you live.

Dusty environments and crawling roomates would beg to differ.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

TBH, that case is a horrible design for airflow. Airflow works best when you can balance case pressure, 6 intake fans would actually be bad, give the case too much internal pressure and hurt temps rather than help.

 

[claes]

I dunno, I think it’s worth trying out. Like you said, it’s poorly designed for airflow — I wouldn’t be that surprised if a single exhaust could keep up

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I dunno, I think it’s worth trying out.

sure it is, thats what we aim for, if it seems ok, "just go with it"